A batch of twelve MPS students, under the guidance of their science mentor Mr. Rajesh Kumar, visited NASA in USA on a week long educational tour.

They flew to the States and landed at Kennedy Space Centre in Orlando, Florida, after a 24-hour journey on May 11, 2011. Well, what did they see there once they were there on the precincts of the Centre?  An unparallel thrill, a unique awe, euphoric feeling of being inside the charmed world of astronauts, becoming one of them as if….!

Young students tasted the experience of staying inside the model of a motion-based simulator in which real astronauts had trained long before setting out on voyages to Mercury, Gemini and other planets as also under the Apollo Shuttle Program. They tasted zero-gravity weightlessness and floated about inside the simulator like the space travellers in all kinds of poses. They attended classes connected with space technology and did some projects. The project made by Borish and his mates was adjudged the best wherein they were assigned the job of designing, building and testing the sustainability and elasticity of a truss.

The Mapsians visited sights like the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Magic Kingdom and American Museum of National Heritage. They were awarded ‘Young Explorer Space’ certificates and they romped home with a special commendation for their professional approach to learning as well as appreciable  conduct by no less than the famed scientist Sir John David Bartoe, payload specialist, at the Kennedy Space Centre.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for budding scientists indeed, who returned with horizons widened and enlarged.